McGuffey's Eclectic Spelling Book

McGuffey's Eclectic Spelling Book, a Revised Edition, is by Alexander H. McGuffey. A table of substitutes gives a sound for letters, with examples such as chaise, chaos, gem, sure, exact and laugh. A section headed OF THE CONSONANTS says the consonants are those letters which can not be perfectly sounded without the aid of a vowel.

A section headed OF SYLLABLES AND WORDS defines a syllable as a sound, or a combination of sounds, uttered by a single impulse of the voice. Lesson 125 carries the note that these words are not exactly alike in sound and should be carefully distinguished, and it pairs rab'bit, an animal, with rab'bet, a term in carpentry. Lesson 126 gives dictation exercises with sentences such as His assistants gave him great assistance and He was the deviser of the machine. Lesson 234 is headed Words of irregular Pronunciation and gives words with their pronunciation in brackets, such as aid'-de-camp (ad'de kong) and sol'dier (sol'jer).